Dude, they aren't "giving" away jobs. This isn't a charity. You don't hire people unless you need them to make money, and then you do whatever it takes to help them make you money. If it wasn't in the best financial interests of the employer, they wouldn't do it.

Why would you prefer engineers take a pay cut to do technician work rather than the engineering they are trained for and experienced in? If an engineer can do it, I bet it would be even easier to transfer VPs and executives to these lucrative technician jobs, right?